worship of this holy day should be discontinued or perverted to unworthy purposes.12

13

The references to this number in our scriptures are so abundant, that it is impossible for any one who possesses the true religion to remain ignorant of his obligations to keep the seventh day holy. And this may form one reason why our seventh degree is called the Holy Royal Arch." The notions of some peculiar sanctity attached to this number,15 began to be enter

12 Thus the Hebrew word schiba (seven) signifies fullness or completion, because in seven days the work of creation was accomplished; and as a symbol thereof the hebdomadal division of time was rendered perfect by the consecration of the seventh day. "An oath," says Michaelis (Laws of Moses, vol. iv. p. 344), “has a name in Hebrew, of which we can trace the etymology, a circumstance that seldom happens in the case of legal terms. As, in ancient times it was customary, when oaths were administered, to sacrifice seven beasts, either oxen or sheep, and schiba meant seven; so schebua (septimatio) came to signify swearing an oath; hischbia (septimavit) to signify that he has adjured, or taken an oath from any one; and nischba (septimatus est) to signify, he has sworn.

13 "The number seven was held to be sacred by the Hebrews, and also by Mussulmans to this day, who reckon seven climates, seven seas, seven heavens, and as many hells. According to Rabbis and Mussulman authors, the body of Adam was made of seven handfuls of mould, taken from the seven stages of the earth." (Wilford, in Asiat. Res. vol. viii. p. 290.)

14" I am inclined to believe," says an American Brother (Cole, Masonic Library), "that the founders of the Order divided its secrets or ceremonies into seven grades. It was incumbent upon them to move slowly, and to manage the subjects with whom they had to deal, with much caution, for fear of a disclosure. Besides, seven steps seem necessary to complete the rounds of the Holy Royal Arch, the grand desideratum of Masonry."

15 Pythagoras assigned many names and qualities to the number

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tained soon after the institution of the Sabbath, as appears from the sevenfold sacrifice of Abel;16 and the translation of Enoch, the seventh from Adam, without being subjected to the penalty of death. Before the deluge Noah received seven day's notice of its commencement, and was commanded to select clean beasts and fowls by sevens," while the unclean were only admitted by pairs. On the seventh month the ark rested on Ararat, and Noah dispatched a dove at the

seven, as Fortune, because it occurs casually and opportunely to everything. Whatsoever," he said (Philo. de die Sept.), "is best among sensible things, by which the seasons of the year and their periods are orderly complete, participates of the hebdomad, the moon having seven days measures all time." (Vid. Johan. Philop. in Metaphys. 7.) He gave the name of Motherless, Virgin, and Minerva to this number, as being a virgin, unmarried, not born of a mother (odd number), nor of a father (even number), but out of the crown or top of the father of all, the Monad. (Chalcid. in Tim. Theon. Smyrn. c. 45.) He called it Mars, Akreosis, Custody, because the stars which guard the universe are seven. Tritogenia, Glaupopis, Panteuchia, Oulomelia, Egis, Osiris, Clio, Adrastia, Dream, Voice, Sound, Judgment, and leading to the end, because all things conclude with this number. (Philo. de Mund. Opif.)

16 That is, a sacrifice, in which were united seven essential properties, viz., 1, a priest; 2, an altar; 3, matter of sacrifice; 4, appointed time; 5, motive to sacrifice; 6, atonement made; and 7, accepted.

Fohi, the first emperor of China, was celebrated for having bred seven different kinds of clean animals for sacrifice. This was a Noachic tradition. The Hindoo god Brahma was styled, "the being who shines with seven rays." Pan carried a pipe of seven reeds; and the Sybil gave Æneas directions to sacrifice seven bullocks and seven sheep before his initiation into the mysteries.—

Nunc grege de intacto septem mactare juvencos,

Præstiterit, totidem lectas de more bidentes. (Æn. vi. 38.)

distance of seven days each time. And the precepts of the Noachida were generally esteemed by the Jewish nations to be seven.

The same reference may be justly attached to the seven years of plenty and seven years of famine, which were denoted by Pharaoh's dream of seven fat and seven lean beasts, and seven ears of good and seven of blighted corn.18 In the Jewish economy the seventh year was directed to be a sabbath of rest. The high priest had seven garments; 19 and a grand jubilee commenced at the expiration of each seven times seven years. Balaam offered sacrifices by the express command of God, consisting of seven bullocks and seven rams;

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18 "Man under seven dayes was counted uncleane, and was to be circumcised; beasts, for a whole weeke, were esteemed uncleane, and as it were, in their blood; but in the beginning of the second seven dayes, when one entire Sabbath had also, in a sort, sanctifyed them, they might offer them without sinne. Exod. xxii. 30. Seven dayes it shall be with his mother, on the eighth day thou shalt give it to me. Also, Levit. xxii. 27. It shall be seven dayes under the damme; from the eighth day, and thenceforth, it shall be accepted, as an offering made by fire unto the Lord." (Kellet. Trican. Christi. p. 57.)

19 A breastplate, an ephod, a robe, an embroidered coat, a mitre, a girdle, and a plate of gold.

20 This important commemoration was evidently introduced to perpetuate the institution of the Sabbath, for it was not only called the sabbatical year, but it was constructed out of the number seven. And it is believed by many learned Jews, as well as Christians, that our system will expire in the seventh, or sabbatical millenary of the world.

21" Some critics have imagined that Balaam built and offered upon seven altars, on account of the states he offered for being in number seven. The Moabites, indeed, were under elders, and it is conjectured that they were divided into seven principalities; but this

which was undoubtedly consonant with the practice of all antiquity.22

As a further evidence of the prevalence of this principle, it may be added, that the sacrifice of Asa was seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep.23 Hezekiah, when he cleansed the house of the Lord of its abominations, sacrificed seven bullocks and seven rams; 24

imagination is entirely groundless. The kings or heads of Midian were five, not seven; and had the number of Balaam's altars been owing to the number of states he sacrificed for, he must have had, not seven, but six only, five for the states of Midian, and one for the king of Moab." (Shuck. Con. vol. iii. p. 281.)

22 We learn from the "Oriental Illustrations," that the number seven is still attended to by the Hindoos in their offerings. The poorer sort will offer seven areka nuts, or limes, or plantains, or betel leaves, or seven measures of rice; and if they cannot go so high, will at least take care to present an odd number.

23 As the sacrifices of the Jews were conducted on the septenary principle, so were the heathen, by the over-ruling providence of God, addicted to the same practice. Cicero said, "Septenarium nunerum rerum omnium fere modum esse;" and this appears to have been the belief of all heathen antiquity. The number seven was, indeed, the measure of almost all things.

24 The Hermesians had a similar sacrifice at their great feast of initiation. "They took seven bulls and seven rams, and fed them with certain herbs called Hashishat uz Zohrah and Tajulmalik, and in their language Shikrek, during seven days, and gave them purified water to drink. The seventh day of the week they decked them out with gold and jewels, and bound them in golden chains. The priests sung prayers, hymns, and psalms in the great temple. The people, arranged in their different classes, worshipped God. The chief of the sacrificers advanced then, and made with the triple staff a sign to the bulls and rams, which, without any other action or impulse, were thereby delivered from their chains, advanced, and voluntarily stretched out their necks towards the sacrificer, who immolated them. The heads of the victims were put in the coffin, and the rest of their

and God commanded the three friends of Job to purify themselves by the same offering.25 The princely offering in Ezekiel was precisely of the same character. Gideon, under the divine direction, sacrificed a bullock seven years old,26 when he had destroyed the altar of Baal, and demolished his holy groves. The atonement demanded of David by the Gibeonites was seven of Saul's descendants; and seven was the Hebrew number of happiness, symbolized in the same number of wreaths on the bowls of the two pillars of Solomon's temple.

bodies embalmed with different kinds of drugs, as aloes, amber, musk, camphor, and storax, and the great prayer began." (Hammer. Hierogl. p. 28.)

25 The Sabeans, according to Maimonides, sacrificed to their deity. seven bats, seven mice, and seven other creeping things.

26 A like principle may be discovered in the corrupt practices used by the degenerate Jews, while labouring under the fascinations of idolatry. Jalkut, in his commentaries on Jeremiah, says, that the idol Moloch or Saturn was placed without the gates of Jerusalem. It was of molten brass, and stood before his seven chapels, with the face of an ox, and hands spread abroad, as though soliciting a present. A fire being kindled within the hollow body of the image, any one might obtain the privilege of entering into either of his chapels, according to the value of his offering. If he offered a fowl he went no farther than the first chapel; if a lamb he was entitled to enter the second; if a sheep, to the third; if a calf, to the fourth; if a bullock, to the fifth; if an ox, to the sixth; and to induce him to offer his son, the high distinction of entering into the sanctum sanctorum, or seventh chapel, was offered. These seven chapels resembled the seven gates with which the Persians honour the sun; and mystically represent the seven days of the week, and the seven planets, of which the sun was Moloch, or king. This image was a personification of Saturn devouring his own children; and emblematical of Chronos, or Time, divided into weeks, months, and years, by whom all the children of men will eventually be devoured.